The All to Evident Oxymoron That Is Progressive Values

Every now and then, you hear furtive mutterings about ‘progressive values.’ If you can see your way past it being just an oxymoron, like ‘jumbo shrimp,’ you may begin to wonder, ‘So what are progressive values?’

Don’t hold your breath waiting for an honest answer. Instead, look at the behavior. And because there’s so much of it to study, and one is easily overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of it, not to mention its quintessential loathsomeness, let’s focus on two recent examples that were drowned out by the roar of others.

This is Richard III in drag—closeted, after his latest crimes, “with right reverend fathers,” and we must not disturb his holy meditations (Act 3, Scene 7).

In the Bible, Queen Esther risks everything, even her life, to save the Jews from genocide: because, as Mordecai says, she may have been born for such a time as this (Esther 4:14). Do you see where Hillary’s coming from? She has a rather high opinion of herself, doesn’t she?

This is the same Hillary Clinton who declared, last year, that Christianity must change its core beliefs and embrace abortion (“Thou shalt not kill”) and homosexuality (see Romans, Chapter 1: it’s a very serious sin). The same Hillary who was honored (if that’s the word for it) this year as Planned Parenthood’s “Person of the Year.” And as for the other scandals that litter her career, they are as numerous as the grains of sand along the Jersey shore.

I think we can get the idea that one of those “values” that progressives hold dear is… abortion. And plenty of it! They also seem to venerate a vast, towering hypocrisy, boldly stated. As long as it’s in the service of “values” like abortion and sexual wickedness, it’s praiseworthy to invoke the Bible and liken oneself to heroic, self-sacrificing Esther—even if the only lives you propose to sacrifice belong to millions of babies slaughtered in the womb.

As this remarkable book was being released, homosexuals converged on Washington for the D.C. Pride Parade—and there’s another progressive value for the list.

But all was not quite copacetic there. A newly-formed group of homosexuals, calling itself “NoJusticeNoPride,” lashed out at “rich gays” for their “collusion with the forces of oppression”. These self-anointed Social Justice Warriors turned on fellow homosexuals for making profits—because, as they’ve learned so well in college, creating wealth is immoral.

Again, a progressive value comes bubbling up out of the darkness. Last year’s Democrat platform was full of gaudy language about the urgent need to “rein in” profits. Surely it was a sop to Bernie Sanders and his merry band of profit-haters; but just as surely, it struck a chord with Clinton’s supporters, too.

They never learned in college that if you don’t make a profit, you can’t operate a business. You have to turn to the real world for that lesson. If you’re forced by law to pay some high school kid $15 an hour to sweep the floor, and “share” your profits with all the “workers,” you either have to sell your pizza for $35 a pop or else go out of business. Because it’s a progressive value that all wealth belongs to “the people” (unless they’re gun-toting, church-going deplorables inhabiting the benighted outback of flyover country) and to their all-wise, all-benevolent surrogate, the Government.

So you can see why progressives are averse to forthrightly stating the “values” they believe in. And we haven’t even touched on other, equally important values, like borderless countries, keeping felons out of prison, prosecuting “hate” and wrong opinions, and setting up a world government.

Author

Lee Duigon, a contributing editor with the Chalcedon Foundation, is a former newspaper reporter and editor, small businessman, teacher, and horror novelist. He has been married to his wife, Patricia, for 34 years. See his new fantasy/adventure novels, Bell Mountain and The Cellar Beneath the Cellar, available on www.amazon.com.

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